Mr. Skin Case Study – 96% Conversion Rate Increase

Our client Mr. Skin is a comprehensive online resource that reviews and catalogs all sexy scenes by actresses and nude celebs in mainstream movies.

Mr. Skin was interested in improving the propensity of visitors to start the checkout process after visiting at least one actress page on the website.

The original page body is shown below:

The final landing page body is shown below:

The results of the test were stunning.

At the end of our multivariate test the new page performed 96% better than the original.

Why the radical difference?

SiteTuners used a number of conversion improvement best-practices to create the winning page:

Clear page headline – The original purple title was squeezed into the right corner above the main box of the page and read “INSTANT ACCESS! Secure & Discreet Billing”. The new page title was centered in the body of the page and provided a clear purpose for the page “Instant Access to Jessica Simpson’s Sexy Movie Pics & Videos!” Note that the actress’ name was dynamically inserted into the page based on the last actress page visited by the visitor.

Well-defined “action block” – The original page had a white background throughout and was divided into two equal-width columns that made it difficult to identify which part of the page was the important one. The new design widens the left column and clearly creates a light-blue action block.

Sub-headline in your action block – The original design did not have a clear sub-headline in the area of the form. The “Choose offer:” text is really part of the original form. The new action block has a clear “Secure Checkout” sub-headline to clearly spell out its purpose.

Clear call-to-action – The original page used an almost-invisible button that was difficult to see against the light gray color of the page. The “Join Now” text was from the perspective of the company and did not focus on any kind of benefit to the visitor. The new page has a bright green button that is distinct and stands out as the only button on the page. The “Get Access” text emphasizes the immediate gratification that the visitor will experience after they join.

Well-designed forms – The original form had a confusing “Choose offer” top section with detailed and cluttered explanations for each sign-up plan option. The new form offers a more accessible “Select Plan” section with short labels for each choice and a single “Help me choose” link for more detailed explanations of each plan.

Page purpose tied to user intent – The original form was a generic and static page that did not recognize the context from which the visitor just arrived. The new page is clearly focused on the visitor’s intent. Since they just arrived from a specific actress page, the registration page is personalized for that actress in both the title and the block of images near the top of the page. This creates a strong tie to the visitor’s desire to see more content about that specific person.

Proper use of credibility and trust symbols – The original page used media mentions on the page to create trust. However, they were prominently displayed in a prominent place on the page in all of their full-color glory. The new version re-sizes all of the media mentions for comparable impact, partially de-saturates their colors, and moves them to the supporting column on the right in order to focus more on the call-to-action.

The huge increase in conversion can also be explained by an awareness level with SiteTuners’ advanced AttentionWizard attention-simulation software (currently in a FREE Beta period).

By understanding the way the visual perception system and brain works, it is possible to accurately simulate how a web page will be viewed during the first few seconds of eye movement, and where the brain’s attention will be focused. The results are instantaneous and do not require expensive eye-tracking studies, or page-tagging and time-consuming data gathering to create mouse-tracking heatmaps.

The “before” page shows that most of the brightest attention hotspots are on the most prominent visual elements (the combination lock and logos). Unfortunately, most of these are on the right hand side of the page. In the midst of all of the visual “noise” the gray call-to-action button is lost and ignored.

By contrast, the “after” page shows controlled gazing focused on the headline, actress images, and the green call-to-action button. The trust and credibility symbols are partially desaturated and non-intrusive and are lightly scanned. This is their proper relationship as supportive rather than attention-grabbing elements on the page.

The morals of the story are clear:

Huge conversion gains can be achieved by expert best-practices reviews and testing

Graphic artists need to follow a minimalist aesthetic that focuses on conversion and not simply “window dressing”

The new page may not be that exciting visually, but that is okay. In fact it is desirable. On a toned-down page the call-to-action emerges from the relative stillness of the page.

“Boring” works. And it makes you a lot more money – that should make it a lot more “exciting”.

Contact us if you are interested in your own SiteTuners Express Review including an AttentionWizard “attention heatmap” analysis of your current landing page.

Web designers could learn a lot from case studies like this one. This was timely, being that I am just about to start on the design process of the product page for our new store. I will definitely take into consideration what I have learned here.

Great case study! The answer was there in the Attention Wizard. I like the change in the button from Join Now to Get Access and it was changed to green. Green means GO! I’m surprised so many people were clicking on the SSL seal. Interesting. Thank you so much for this, it was really helpful.

You guys were fooled by randomness maybe??? :)
The explanations you give for increasing conversions are explanations, not causes. Can you prove which ones really CAUSED the conversions to be low before? Once conversions are increased one can come up with these, and hundreds of other plausible explanations for increased conversions, but it is difficult to prove that any of these is really the cause.

After going over these explanations, the major one is “Page purpose tied to user intent”. That’s causing the increase in conversions, all the rest are stories…
I can bet that if you just test with that change, and keep most of the original page as is, you will see a jump in conversions about the same magnitude.

Sanjayhttp://www.sanjayjohn.com
(I do web stuff as a hobby, but don’t have statistically significant data because my websites are too small in traffic. They do make money though…:))